Heat spreaders are used to remove heat from structures such as an integrated circuit (IC). An IC die is often fabricated into a microelectronic device such as a processor. The increasing power consumption of processors results in tighter thermal budgets for a thermal solution design when the processor is employed in the field. Accordingly, a thermal interface solution is often needed to allow the die to reject heat more efficiently.
Various techniques have been employed to transfer heat away from an IC. These techniques include passive and active configurations. One passive configuration involves a conductive material in thermal contact with the backside of a packaged IC. This conductive material is often a heat pipe, heat sink, a slug, a heat spreader, or an integrated heat spreader (IHS).